Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1887-02-26
THE PENSION BILL.
Bragg's Great speech on the Presi.
dents Veto Of the Dependent
Pension Bill-News.
CONGRESSIONAL.
House.

= day. Bloant, OF Georgia. called up the re
Z port of the Committee OF the Whole OF
: Senate amendments to the Postofice Ap
3 propration bill. the first three senat
/. amendments relative to Office rent il
Washington (and limiting the placing o
q letter boxes to public places. buildings ane
' railroad staiions) were concurred in
6 The fourth amendment proposition
9 appropriatDg half million dollars tc
E enable the Postmaster General to contract
j for the carrying of foreign mails ON Ameri
| can vessels to Central and South America
/ was not cOncurred in but was recon-.
! mended. Burrows, OF Michigan. moved
! that the House concur in the Senate and
J it was lost, yeas, $50; nays, 157, and it
was then not concurred in, and a conference
was ordered.
Watson, Of Indiana, called up the
! Depeedent Pension bill with the veto OF
the President thereon. 1t was agreed that
debate should run until 4 O'Clock, when
the previous question should be consid-
cred.
1 Mr.. Bragg, Wisconsin, said that the time
! had arrived when the pension question
should receive more than careful consider
alton. It was time for the members of the
House to get out from the roseate bubble
in which they lived in Washington, pre-
pdAcN AOI lASAA Ny CicAAA dSVut0S 0uu AOOh
after the interests of the real soldier and
4 the business interests Of the country.
They had drifted along, impelled by a spe-
cies of sympathetic influence, regardless of
reason or judgment, until a period was
reached which eliminated in the presenta-
4 tation and passage OF one OF the most
i scandalous bills which had ever been sent
u to the President for his signature.
The people OF the country, with.
h@l
reason to be thankful that's this bill had
1 been presented to an executive who had
4 backbone enough to meet the situation. In
/ a few years the soldiers of the country mot
the bummers') would have arrived at an
age when they could come to Congress and
] demand as q right-not ask as charity
that provision be made for them. Let
not Congress bankrupt the Treasury be-
fore that time arrives, by yielding to the
demands of deserters, coffee coolers and
bounty jumpers. If the gentleman from
tional Tribune, published in Wash
ington by the men who received
from $500 to 81 500 per month as fees
from soldiers whom they pretended to love,
| he would find in every column some abuse
of the President ard those who thought
differently from themselves as to the pro-
| prIety OF the NE .sure. Such newspapers
| as this, which professed to be friends OF the
! soldiers were such friends as vu!tures were
| friends of dead bodies, because they fed and
fattened on them. 1t had been charged
| that he was not Il friend OF the soldiers.
To that he replied that no man who had
| served with his troops in the field for four
years, who had followed the ''starry
flag" in fifty or sixty pitched battles would
forget them. 1t was for that class OF sol
ssiers that ! . stood here to-day. To defend
them against the imputation cast upon
them by the passage OF the Pauper Pension
Bill. No man who had enjoyed
the exquisite delight OF riding down the
line that was wa avering and breaking in the |
presence of the enemy, and hear the hearty |
! cheer. three times three, go up, cheer of
confidence and joy that the leader had
come, could ever forget his comrades. Who, |
that had ever seen those men rushing into |
battle, thoughtless of themselves and
their homes, ready to lay down their |
lives for their country, could ever forget |
them. or would be willing that
they should be cfassed as pau
GERS, and placed on the roll |
with the coffee coolers OF the army. The |
men who advocated this bill were not
friends of true soldiers. They advocated !
this bill, many of them. Why? Simply |
because the men could vote, whom they ex- !
pected to buy by this bill.
Mr.. Henderson, of Iowa, said, for one. |
pronounce that false. (App'ause on the !
Republican side and in the ealleries.)
Mr.. Bragg-l say that this is
the sub-stratum upon which |
all this action is based.
If these men whom they call paupers were |
to call upon them individually for aid they /
would say to them: You good.for-nothing
ecoundrels. You are as competent to work |
os (1,o,1Ohfnr u nd q v,,N1o,Y the |
Republican side.) This bill. he said, would
grant PENSIONS to men who had served |
from December 1854 to June 1865. Who
were those men? They were the scum of
the earth. They were the scum and dregs.
They staid in their homes until they
were bought. bought by men who
speculated in blood, paid from
81 900 or $500, with the private assur-
ance that they were physically SO detective
that they all had to 60 to the hospital
and not endanger their precious carcasses.
Gentlemen talked about soldiers being in
alnehouses, the men who had come from
them, and who, when they left the army,
had lapsed into the old condition. No
true brave soldier need ever 60 to the
poor house. Men who went there were ma
tives there; they had no self
respect, no character; they laid
M
remark.) Mr.. Bragg said he knew the
gentleman who had just interrupted him,
and if he dared to vote his conviction
we would vote as he (Mr. Rragg) did. He
knew gentlemen who had committed
themselves, day after day in opposition
to the principle o! the bill, and who we're
grateful for the veto. (Cries OF "Who are
they?'') know what l am talking about.
have heard them repeated cries OF Name
n,,tt |
do it," and much noise and
confusion.) THE Republican Congress
men, all of them" was Mr.. Bragg's reply,
which was greeted with mingled applause,
laughter and jeers. (The spectators who
filled the galleries to their utmost capacity,
and who listened eagerly to all that was
said on the floor, now took part in the
demonstration OF disapproval and ap-
proval, and without adding to the noise
and confusion, sufficiently to justify the
speaker in ordering the galleries cleared,
gave vent to their feelings until the close
Of the debate by frequent applause.)
Mr.. Bragg declared that the President was
opposed to the bill. Those gentlemen who
set up aloft (pointing to the press gallery
might some time or other turn this big
pension boom into q much larger boom
erang in some gentleman's district zap
plause). I'VE have Jared as we'll in our
OlSUrlCtS as tne gem tleIIldu mas III HIS. e4.
claimed Mr.. Henderson. of Iowa. This al
lusion to Mr.. Bragg's failure to secure re-
was greeted with loud and con-
tinued laughter on the Republican side.
Bragg repeated that the press was
opposed to the bill. The great Republican
papers OF his State stood by the President.
The great Republican papers OF Ohio sus-
tanned the President; the great Republican
apers OF Pennsylvania stood side by side
with the President; the papers OF New York,
almost without distinction of party, stood
by the President; the gallant soldier gover- {
nor Of Maine, Chamberlain, stood by the Z.
President. |:
"Yes," cried Mr.. Boutelle. land he stands
alone in Maine" (Applause on the Repub-
lican side.) II speak for Maine." Jeers of
Democrats and cries ot''sorry for Maine.'')
Mr.. Bragg, continuing, said: The +
great soldier. Palmer, OF 1llinoir, {
stood by the President. Governor Cox. OF
Ohio. stood nv the President. Old Dan
5ickels. of the Third Army Corps. said that
the veto Was a most glorious deed. Brave
men OF all parties stood by the President. :
It vas only little minds that went hnsz;n9 I